To be used in performance wear such as swimwear, athletic apparel, or intimate apparel, the stretchable fabrics are required to have comfortable stretch and compression, good hand feel, as well as having high durability. Many of the stretchable fabrics contain elastic yarns, predominately spandex yarns which are warp-knitted with other hard yarns such as nylon or polyethylene terephthalate to provide the desired hand feel and durability.
Warp knit fabrics are well known materials. They can be conventionally produced on Ketten, Raschel or tricot knitting machines. Processes and apparatus for preparing warp knit fabrics are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,487,040 and 4,802,346 and in PCT Patent Application No. WO 03/023105. All of these patent documents are incorporated herein by reference.
Korean Patent Application No. 2002-0001924 discloses a method of manufacturing a warp knit fabric containing 70-95 weight % of 50-70 d polytrimethylene terephthalate (PTT) multifilament fibers and 5-30 weight % of 20-70 d spandex fibers on a 2 guide bar tricot machine of 28 gauge. The resulting fabric has a basis weight ranging from 80-170 g/m2.
Japanese Patent Application No. 11-81096 discloses knit fabrics made by Raschel or tricot knitting machines, which comprises PTT fibers and elastic fibers, wherein the content of the elastic fibers is 5 to 30 weight %, elastic draft of 1.5 times-3.5 times, and the fineness ratio of elastic fibers to PIT fibers is 0.1-15, preferably 0.5-9. In one example disclosed therein, a tricot knitting machine of 28 gauge was used to make a soft fabric of unspecified pattern containing 50 d/36 f PTT fibers and 40 d polyurethane fibers, where the run-in of the front bar is 160 cm/480 courses (i.e. 1 rack) and the run-in of the back bar is 80 cm/480 courses.
As discussed above, there is a continuing effort, especially in the performance wear industry, to provide a stretchable fabric with good hand feel, comfortable stretch, and high durability, such as excellent colorfastness after continuous exposure to harsh condition such as to chlorine and UV radiation. The present invention fulfills such efforts.